Burnt Offerings For May 13, 2014

Warner Archive is treating us to a few Most Wanted picks this week, throwing a long overdue spotlight on Clark Gable. Toss in some cowboys and some more classic Hanna-Barbera animation and you’ve got yourself a pretty tasty lineup of MOD releases. Let’s check ‘em out and don’t forget to click ‘n’ shop at Warner Archive and Amazon via the lineup of banners separating this paragraph from that one. [Read on here...]

NEW FROM THE WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION

After Office Hours (1935) – Gable’s a newspaper man schmoozing society gal Constance Bennett, using her charm to investigate a murder. It’s one of those mixtures of comedy, romance and crime that they seemed to only make in the 1930s.

Hell Divers (1931) – Gable is teamed with top-billed Wallace Beery in this tale of rival naval pilots. Produced with the cooperation of the United States Navy, so I’d expect a fair amount of flag-waving.

Parnell (1937) – Gable and Myrna Loy suffered one of the biggest flops of their careers with this expensive biopic about 1880s Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell. This one is probably for curiosity seekers only, although collectors of legendarily terrible movies will want to grab it immediately.

Test Pilot (1938) – Gable and Loy fared much better with this contemporary adventure drama. Gable’s a hotshot test pilot and Spencer Tracy costars as his best pal/chief mechanic. This is one of the better buddy movies of its era and has been long requested on DVD.

The Jetsons: Season 3 (1987) – Meet George Jetson one more time as the space-age family wraps it up with their final ten episodes.

Monogram Cowboy Collection: Volume 8 (1941-50) – Johnny Mack Brown and the Rough Riders (Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton) feature in this latest collection of B-westerns from Monogram Pictures. The four-disc set includes the following dozen titles: Arizona Bound (1941), The Gunman From Bodie (1941), Forbidden Trails (1941), Below The Border (1942), Ghost Town Law (1942), West Of The Law (1942), Law Of The Valley (1944), West Of The Rio Grande (1944), Silver Range (1946), Over The Border (1950), Six Gun Mesa (1950) and West Of Wyoming (1950). Giddy-up!

NEW FROM 20TH CENTURY FOX CINEMA ARCHIVES

Chad Hanna (1940) – Country boy Henry Fonda runs off and joins the circus in this slice of Americana costarring Dorothy Lamour and Linda Darnell.

Springtime In The Rockies (1942) – The classic Technicolor musical with Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda arrives on DVD for the first time.

About Dr. Adam Jahnke

Dr. Adam Jahnke is a Senior Editor for The Digital Bits who joined in 2000. His regular columns include Burnt Offerings: MOD DVD, The Bottom Shelf and Jahnke's Electric Theater (which includes the popular JET's Most Wanted and the annual month-long Hell Plaza…